A Good Read

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A Good Read: Mona Arshi & Malaika Kegode

Mona Arshi & Malaika Kegode

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Poet Mona Arshi and writer Malaika Kegode discuss their favourite books.

The choices encompass old Hollywood and the relationships between mothers, daughters and granddaughters.

Mona Arshi is a poet and novelist. Her choice of book is Summer Book by Tove Jansson which of which she says: "I'm glad it exists in the world". She loves its simplicity and quietness in its exploration of the relationship between a grandmother and a young girl and the unspoken grief that exists between them as they spend the summer on an island off the coast of Finland. Malaika Kegode chooses a book with a very different take on family: White Oleander by Janet Fitch about a young girl Astrid and her beautiful dangerous, selfish mother who makes her daughter feel she is a burden. It's a book Malaika read as a teenager and which she says bridged her passage into reading adult fiction.
Jonathan Coe's novel Mr Wilder and Me is Harriett's choice. It's what Malaika calls 'a wish fulfillment novel' as it tells the story of a young woman who gets to work with the legendary Hollywood director Billy Wilder and how her life changes for good.

Producer: Maggie Ayre for BBC Audio, Bristol

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A Good Read

Mona Arshi & Malaika Kegode

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